Classical Chill: Classical Music for Chilled Out Moods

Naxos jumps onto the downbeat/chillout bandwagon with Classical Chill, a two-disc collection that shoehorns selected pieces from the classical canon into a package that might hook a few young listeners. Creative marketing concepts aside, it wouldn't be a bad idea for a few young people with adventurous listening habits to pick this one up: The selectors did a good job of picking evocative works with at least a small degree of crossover. From Einojuhani Rautavaara's Cantus Arcticus Concerto to Philip Glass' Violin Concerto to Toru Takemitsu's Toward the Sea, Classical Chill intersperses the more staid sound of string trios and quartets with more abstract, conceptual pieces with genuine appeal to those who appreciate the ambitious sound worlds of Röyksopp, Koop, and others in the downbeat subgenre that spawned this compilation.